Personal Brands Are The Way Of The Future – What’s Yours?

Organizations spend a significant portion of their annual budget every year on marketing and branding. Large Fortune-sized companies even have departments staffed with brand zealots working tirelessly to ensure that the corporate brand is never misrepresented by employees, contractors, and partners. However, very few business leaders spend any time or effort in their own personal brands.

What are Personal Brands?

Tom Peters first starting talking about personal brands back in 1997. Essentially, a personal brand is how you are viewed by others. Steve Job’s once said that your brand is a “trustmark,” where you either have other people trust… or you don’t. Others have described personal brands as the “conversations that people have about you when you are not in the room.”

Personal brands are becoming equally as important to an individual as a corporate brand is to a company. You only need to look as far as Facebook to see that what some people post about themselves ends up destroying their personal brand.

5 Quick Steps to Building Your Personal Brand

Even if you don’t think so, YOU are a brand. If you disagree, then a brand you may not like could happen on its own accord. Think of brands like Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Tom Hanks… they all have put massive amounts of effort into their own personal brands.

Envision your brand. Your brand isn’t a logo. It is a feeling, a perception, an energy, a presence. Building your brand starts with a vision of how you want all of the above to be.

Build your brand. Every aspect (absolutely every aspect!) of your brand needs to be thought out. Keep it real. Keep it authentic. Keep it aligned with your strengths.

Audit Touchpoints. The most obvious place to start is your online presence. Make sure your profiles on various platforms are consistent. Make sure you use professional photos. Make sure that you always STAY ON BRAND when you post.

You are who you have lunch with! Your brand is impacted by those around you. If you want to take your brand to the next level, you may need to leave some parts of your old brand behind.